Proper battery usage

[jpun1]

Newbie Question: Curious how much of your batteries do people typically use up in normal flights with their drones? I hear you don't want to push it below 10% as it may damage the lipo batteries. Is this true?

 

[tcope]

Yes it's true. Most people fly back and are near the landing area at 30%. This gives you a few minutes buffer. Land between 30% - 20%, 10% is pushing it as the Mavic is set to start landing on it's own at 10%, no matter where it is.

Edit: 10% won't damage the batter. DJI has them programmed to shut off the battery before it gets so low that it will cause damage.

 

[Just_nick]

These are smart batteries, so I am far less worried about discharging them compared to dumb LiPo batteries. I usually turn them off at/before 20%, but that's only because I know that the extra flight time I'll get by discharging them further is negligible, and it is risking an auto-land scenario. However, if I did a distance flight and had to push it further to get it home, I would not have an issue with going down to 10%. As was stated, they will force land and shut off to prevent cell damage.

 

[Qoncussion]

Exactly what has been stated above. Between 20%-30%. I think the lowest I've gone so far is around 15%. I also have my low battery warning set to 24%, instead of the default 30%, as I am neurotic about watching my battery life while flying, and have never been caught off guard with the sudden realization that I'm not going to *make it*. By 30% I should (and do) have the drone close to home, but don't mind burning up another 10% before landing.

 

[RayOZ]

I've been advised not store the battery below 20% for too long. So, I usually have my drone close to me by 35%, then zip around until 30% and land.

 

[gjmphoto]

My understanding is that these batteries will not go too low...and that zero isn't really zero in that they preserve 5 to 8 pct of the power even when they read zero. Apparently if a IiPO battery reaches actual zero you can no longer charge it so the reserve protects these batteries. In fact I saw it recommended that you recycle your batteries to "zero" and build them back up from scratch periodically (twice a year).

I also understand that the intelligent batteries will automatically discharge after x amount of days (default 10 days) so storing them at 35% or anything else will not stay that way for long. The battery will discharge itself to the recommended power level without any action on your part after the allotted number of days.

I'll try to locate the videos I've seen on battery life for mpp batteries and post them.

 

[Rnl]

Just remember Everytime you check batteries it starts the clock over.